Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Evidence mounts...

Credible sources who were close to Gary Webb have stated that he was receiving death threats, being regularly followed, and that he was concerned about strange individuals who were seen on multiple occasions breaking into and leaving his house before his apparent 'suicide' on Friday morning.

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Ricky Ross, one of Gary Webb's primary sources had spoken to Gary in the days before his death. Gary told Ricky that he had seen men scaling down the pipes outside his home and that they were obviously not burglars but 'government people'. Gary also told Ricky that he had been receiving death threats and was being regularly followed. It was also mentioned that Gary was working on a new story concerning the CIA and drug trafficking.

Gary described the men around his home as 'professionals' who jumped from his balcony and ran away when Gary confronted them ...

Original Associated Press reports stated that Webb had died of gunshot wounds (plural) to the face. This was later changed to 'single gunshot wound' when people began to question how or why a man would shoot himself in the face twice. This represents a concentrated effort to cover up the nature of Webb's death. There have also been reports that the coroner on the scene had originally reported 'multiple gunshot wounds' but later changed his story.

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Former DEA agent Cele Castillo concurs that Webb was murdered and that in such a "revenge hit" situation it was common in his experience that the murderers would have likely talked to Webb at length about how and why they were about to kill him.

This is the first I'd seen that Webb was working on a new CIA/drug story. But my gut goes with Castillo's take of a "revenge hit."

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero accused the former government of deceiving the public between the March 11 Madrid train bombings and March 14 elections and of erasing computer records concerning that period.

"It was all deceit. It was massive deceit," Zapatero told a parliamentary commission Monday. He said the former government deceived the public by blaming the train bombings, which killed 191 people, on Basque separatist guerrilla group ETA. Investigators later determined that Islamic militants were responsible for the attacks.

I can't think of a better time to remember thisTimes of London story from last Spring:

Bomb squad link in Spanish blasts

The man accused of supplying the dynamite used in the al-Qaeda train bombings in Madrid was in possession of the private telephone number of the head of Spain’s Civil Guard bomb squad, it emerged yesterday.

Emilio Suárez Trashorras, who is alleged to have supplied 200kg of dynamite used in the bombs, had obtained the number of Juan Jesús Sánchez Manzano, the head of Tedax.

The revelation has raised fresh concerns in Madrid about links between those held responsible for the March bombings, which killed 190 people, and Spain’s security services, and shortcomings in the police investigation. Señor Suárez Trashorras and two other men implicated in the bombings have already been identified as police informers. Other members of the group had evaded police surveillance, despite concerns within the security services about their activities and evidence of their association with al-Qaeda.

The telephone number of Señor Sánchez Manzano was contained in a Civil Guard dossier handed to Juan del Olmo, the investigating judge, at the National Court in Madrid. The number was written on a piece of paper found in the possession of Carmen Toro, the wife of Señor Suárez Trashorras. Both are in custody accused of supplying dynamite used in the Madrid bombs.

Three years after Osama bin Laden fled American bombs in his Tora Bora hideout, the search for the world's most wanted man has all but come to a halt because of Pakistan's refusal to permit cross-border raids from Afghanistan, according to CIA officials.

Washington has downgraded its efforts to catch the al-Qa'eda leader in Afghanistan, from where he supervised the September 11 attacks, because it has become convinced that he is hiding in Pakistan's virtually lawless Tribal Areas, which hug the 1,200-mile frontier.

Islamabad refuses to permit cross-border pursuits by US special forces based in Afghanistan's mountainous frontier regions, agency officials told the New York Times.

Please, someone, how absurd is this story?

Do you recall the post-9/11 chest thumping? Richard Armitage, it was said, had given Pakistan a you're-with-us-or-against-us ultimatum. To ISI chief and Mohammed Atta's bagman Mahmood Ahmed, no less. The outcome of this shadow play was that Pakistan had chosen "wisely," and was fully onside in the "War on Terror."

And now? Well, Pakistan won't let us in, so we have no choice but to give up the hunt for bin Laden.

1383 Comments:

But the media will never directly confront this ridiculousness in any significant way-- in fact, they are among the biggest winkers-- and so there will never be a critical mass of people who will rise up against this government-spewed nonsense.

I guess the only hope is some sort of independent media will rise up and start to discredit the mainstream media-- or at least give them a good run for their money.

I note that not one of the so-called journalists eager to cry murder -- especially radio demagogue and sensationalist fear monger Alex Jones (See Below) -- bothered to pick up the phone, send an email or make any attempt to contact the family or any agency for their observations, wishes or facts. Not the slightest concern was shown by any of them for an already devastated family. The wounded were kicked and exploited when they were already down. For this there can be no forgiveness and no pardon.

In other words, one of the most fundamental tenets of journalism - one that Gary himself would have honored and demanded - was completely ignored by people who demonstrated that they have no class, zero judgment and not the slightest thought for anything but their own self-serving needs.

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THE SHAME OF ALEX JONES AND JOHN HANKEY

There were many hysterical, unfounded internet rumors and wild stories circulated in the days following Gary's death. Unfortunately, almost all of them reached his family; the human beings you see in these pictures. I was even accused of participating in Gary's murder because I wrote that I had as yet seen "no reason" (i.e. evidence) to suspect murder and I, like many others had known pieces of Gary's state of mind in the months and years prior to his death.

None of these outrages inflicted upon Webb's family surpass those of radio demagogue Alex Jones and internet activist John Hankey.

The internet is an indispensable tool which brings us the BBC, major publications, university research, data bases, instant communication, and authentic investigative journalism. It also brings us a host of so-called journalists - angry, selfish children playing with the loaded weapons of powerful words who contaminate this medium with garbage. Because the internet must always - like free speech itself - be free from censorship (for as long as we can keep it that way) we will have to endure the work of people who have no conscience, no ethics and little or no skill.

But the marketplace of ideas does work on the internet and I am going to put it use right now.

On December 14th, Alex Jones, publishing on his web site prisonplanet.com released an article titled

UPDATE: CORONER's INITIAL FINDING: GARY WEBB's DEATH CONFIRMED AS SUICIDE / NEW EVIDENCE BEGINS TO INDICATE GARY WEBB WAS MURDERED MOST LIKELY CIA OPERATIVES HE WAS GETTING READY TO EXPOSE AGAIN / WEBB SPOKE OF DEATH THREATS AND SEEING 'GOVERNMENT PEOPLE' LURKING AROUND HIS HOME / WAS HE ANOTHER DANNY CASOLERO?! - by Alex Jones & Paul Joseph Watson.

Upon seeing the headline I laughed. Danny Casolaro was a real journalist whose murder was made to appear a suicide but Jones could not even spell his name correctly.

Jones has a large syndicated and internet radio show for which he claims a listening audience of "millions". Strange that he could not reach out into his vast empire to have someone in the Sacramento area check just a few facts before he published and sent his garbage out straight to Webb's family. FTW does that with its subscribers frequently because we - like Gary Webb - spare no effort to get it right.

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Above are photographs I took of Gary's house (2016 Clearfield Way in Carmichael, a Sacramento suburb) showing clearly that it is a one-story house. There is no balcony anywhere and there are no pipes for Ricky Ross' Ninja warriors to slide down. There are aluminum drain spouts visible but they would not support a man's weight and I am at a loss to understand why a government Ninja would want to slide down it since the eave of the roof is barely seven feet off the ground. It would be much easier to hang from the edge and then drop a foot or two. And what would have been the purpose of being on the roof anyway? There's no door there. How did these Ninjas get on the roof?

Many credible activists and journalists - including this writer - have been previously burned by Jones' hyperbole, salacious sensationalism and eagerness to play loose with and even fabricate facts in the past. But this travesty is beyond the pale; beyond redemption.

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This is a time for all of us who are activists, professional investigator and journalists on the internet to distinguish and separate ourselves from those who do not employ professional standards for their investigation and reporting. These standards are used to make what is consumed by a sometimes too-trusting readership trustworthy and useful. It is a matter of love and honor for those who read what we write.

Just as the dishonest mainstream media distances itself from those of us who use this powerful medium out of fear, it is time for those of us who care about getting it right to draw an unmistakable line between ourselves and the internet "trailer trash" who detract from the very, very difficult job that Gary Webb gave his life for: Telling the truth, getting it right and proving it in a way that can be trusted… No matter what the cost.

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